Aug. 28. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



191 



*'to coal" in a bale of fire. But the messenger 

 who brings the king's gloves to Haco is a little 

 man, and red-bearded ; and he calls to mind the 

 Danish king's j^rs^ counsel. Accordingly, he rides 

 off during the night ; and toward daybreak enters 

 a solitary chapel, where an old priest is about to 

 sing mass. The second counsel occurs to him, and 

 he stays to the end, after which he returns to the 

 unfinished hall. In the meantime, the English 

 master has visited it, hoping to find his rival 

 already burnt ; but the workmen, thinking him to 

 be Haco under an assumed form, seize, and fling 

 him into the flames. Haco then appears, and 

 finds that his remaining to the end of the mass has 

 saved him. He rises high in the English king's 

 favour, who gives him four noble ships, well laden, 

 with which he returns to Norway. There he 

 enters his own house during the night, and sees 

 two heads on his pillow. He is about to kill both, 

 but recollects the third " wise rede," and repeats 

 the prayer, during which his wife awakes, and 

 recognising him, shows him his son, who has been 

 born during his absence. 



This story, in its present form, is not probably 

 older than the fourteenth century. Can it be 

 traced further back ; and does any Oriental legend 

 exist, resembling it ? The escape of Haco recalls 

 that of Fridolin in Schiller's "Gang nach dem 

 Eisenhammer." Richard John King. 



SAINT GASPAKD DE COLIGXY. 



Your readers may not be generally aware that 

 Admiral de Coligny, the great Huguenot chief, is 

 venerated as a saird by some of the Roman Catholic 

 peasants in the north of France. The circum- 

 stances are thus stated in a book entitled Itineraire 

 Descriptif, ou Description Routiere, ^c. de la France 

 et de rjtalie, by Vayasse de Villiers : Paris, 1813 

 —19, a work which I have already had occasion 

 to quote in your pages. The author is describing 

 the town of Chantilly, in the department de I'Oise, 

 and the improvements made in it by the illustrious 

 houses of Conde, Montmorency, and Orgemont, 

 the successive owners of the soil ; and he continues 

 in these words : 



" Des travaux executes par oidre de 'ce Prince 

 (Louis Joseph de Bourbon) dans la chapelle du cliateau, 

 ont fait decouvrir le corps de PAmiral de Coligny, la 

 plus illustre victime du massacre de la Saint Barthelerai. 

 II avait ete detache des fourches de Montfaucon par 

 ordre du Due de Montmorency, son cousin, et enterre 

 secretement dans cette chapelle. L'eveque de Seniis, 

 interroge sur ce qu'on devait faire de ce cadavre, pro- 

 nonfa que ce qui etait en terre sainte devait y re- 

 tourner. Le cadavre fut place, d'apres cette autorisa- 

 tion, dans I'eglise paroissiale, a cote du premier pillier 

 a gauche, en entrant. Les bonnes femmes y font des 

 pelerinages et des oifrandes a Saint Gaspard de Coligny, 

 pour la guerlson des enfants rachitiques. Si elles 

 savaient que c'est sur la tombe d'un huguenot qu 'elles 



se prosternent ainsl, elles reculeraient sans doute 

 d'horreur J mais si on le leur disait, elles n'en croiraient 

 rien, et continueraient leur pelerinage, tant est aveugle 

 la credulite. On fait aussi bien de la leur laisser 

 ignorer, puisqu'au demeurant, cest lafoi qui nous sauve, 

 et que d'ailleurs TAmiral de Coligny etait un homme 

 vertiieux et tres recommendable." 



The words " c'est la foi qui nous sauve " are 

 given in Italics by the author, and oflfer an amusin"- 

 illustration of the shifts to which even intelligent 

 inquirers will sometimes resort, in order to paUiate 

 the degrading excesses of popular superstition. As 

 to the old Admiral's saintship, it is easy to divine 

 how it came to pass. The respect paid to the 

 corpse by the good Bishop of Seniis, in authorising 

 its removal from a private chapel to the parish, 

 church; its interment within the walls of the sacred 

 edifice ; the interest shown on the occasion by the 

 Montmorencys and other persons of rank; the 

 mystery observed in concealing from the multi- 

 tude the real character of the Huguenot chief; all 

 these circumstances must have contributed to in- 

 spire the peasants with sentiments of veneratioa 

 for the deceased ; and this veneration, strengthened 

 perhaps by some accidental cure of a sick child, 

 gradually arose to that undiscerning credulitv 

 which is ever ready to transform a hero into a saint. 



Heney H. Bbeen. 

 Si. Lucia. 



EPIGRAMS. 



I find the following in a MS. Common-Place 

 Book of the date of January 11th, 1697-8, in a 

 very good handwriting of that time. Can any of 

 your correspondents tell whence they are taken ? 

 Have they been in print before ? Are they from 

 Martial or Ausonius ? I have not mine at hand 

 to look : — 



ON THE COVETOUS. 



*' He, Hercules' nil ultra does pass by, 

 And Carolus' plus ultra doth apply." 

 Latine. 

 " Improbus Herculeum nihil ultra transit avarus. 



Plus ultra Caroli semper habere cupit." 

 To what, and whom, does this allude ? 



LAW AND PHYSIC. 



" If mortals would, as Nature dictates, live, 

 They need not fees to the physician give. 

 If men were wise they need not have their cause 

 Pleaded, prolong'd by the ambiguous laws. 

 So Bartolus might (feeless) go to bed, 

 And mice corrode Hippocrates unread." 

 Latine. 



" Vivere nature si convenienter amarent 

 Mortales, medica nil opus esset ope. 

 Si saperent homines, rixis avidisque carerent 

 Litibus, et queruli garrulitate fori. 

 Sic incomposltus post scrinia Bartolus iret, 

 Et mus illectum roderet Hippocratem." 



